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Road to Canossa

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1076 ritual submission of Emperor Henry IV

Wikidata facts

Instance of
Italienzug
Named after
Canossa Castle
Image
Hugo-v-cluny heinrich-iv mathilde-v-tuszien cod-vat-lat-4922 1115ad.jpg
Show 4 more facts
Commons category
Walk to Canossa
start time
1076-12-00
end time
1077-01-00
Sources (1)

via Wikidata · CC0

~9 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Henry at Canossa, history painting by Eduard Schwoiser [de] (1862)

The Road to Canossa or Humiliation of Canossa (Italian: L'umiliazione di Canossa), or, sometimes, the Walk to Canossa (German: Gang nach Canossa/Kanossa) was the journey of the Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV to Canossa Castle in 1077, and his subsequent ritual submission there to Pope Gregory VII. It took place during the Investiture controversy and involved the Emperor seeking absolution and the revocation of his excommunication by the Pope who had been staying at the castle as the guest of Margravine Matilda of Tuscany.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Road to Canossa” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.